“Herb’s Pit BBQ in Murphy opened in 1982. Like so many good barbecues it is the typical family run restaurant. Hoover and Helen Gibson started this Western North Carolina barbecue mecca. Their son is the kitchen cook and their daughter-in-law is the manager of the wait staff. Helen comes in everyday to oversee and lend a hand. Herb still does all the cooking on the pits. The staff has been together for more than five years and they’re very friendly, truly Southern hospitality at its best.

The chopped barbecue is hand chopped medium with nice meaty pieces. It comes sauced from the kitchen. It has moderately sweet rib-type sauce and you don’t need to add anything at the table. The pork has a rich brown flavor; it is hard to taste the smokiness fully because of the sweet sauce, however the cooking method and sauce work. The sliced barbecue pork has a deeper smoky flavor than the chopped. It’s very moist and very tender. You can cut it with a fork. It goes really well with the sauce used in the kitchen, the same sauce as the chopped.

The barbecue chicken has a slightly crisp skin and good smoky flavor all the way to the bone. It’s very moist with juicy droplets inside. The house barbecue sauce on the bird is something to crow about. The barbecue pork ribs are tender with just enough outside crust and glaze to make these ribs sing. They are meaty, chewy and good to the point of being sinful.”

Excerpts from The Best Tar Heel Barbecue Manteo to Murphy pages 60-61.